“AGE IS JUST A NUMBER”

By Raymond Benson

Harold and Maude, which was directed by Hal Ashby (his second feature film) and released in 1971, is one of those initially critically stomped box-office bombs… and yet years later became a cult hit in revival houses, on television broadcasts, and home video releases. It’s one of many examples that illustrate how critics don’t always know everything and how some motion pictures are ahead of their time. Harold and Maude now resides in the top 50 of the AFI’s list of 100 greatest comedy films.

Written by Colin Higgins, who simultaneously turned his original screenplay into a novel (also published in 1971), the movie was unquestionably a counter-culture, rebellious black comedy that from the get-go had the potential to offend some folks. The main character’s fake suicide pranks aside, the theme of a May-December romance—this time with the woman being the older one in the relationship—was sure to be off-putting to the moral majority. One often hears the justification for couples in which one person is much older than the other is that “age is just a number.” In the case of Harold and Maude, Maude’s number is 79, while Harold’s is 19. That’s a sixty year difference. Okay, then!

Most everyone by now knows the story. Harold (Bud Cort) is a cynical young man who lives with his wealthy, snobbish mother (Vivian Pickles). He is a misfit who is obsessed with death. He constantly stages gory suicides for shock effect, which of course upsets his mother as well as any blind dates that she sets up for her son. Harold also attends funerals for people he doesn’t know, and that’s where he meets Maude (Ruth Gordon). It turns out that Maude, a concentration camp survivor, also likes to go to strangers’ funerals, but her outlook on life is much different than Harold’s. She is wild, happy-go-lucky, and full of life. She’ll commit misdemeanors like stealing cars for the fun of it. The two develop a fast friendship, and together they have some misadventures, all set to the lively music of Cat Stevens. Romance blooms between the two, and Harold ultimately announces that he will marry Maude. The movie takes a poignant left turn at this point, and to say more would spoil it for those who have never seen the picture.

Director Ashby has always been something of an iconoclast in Hollywood. He started out as a successful editor who transitioned to directing. He found a niche in the swinging early 1970s as a helmsman of fringe anti-establishment titles like The Last Detail (1973) or Shampoo (1975). The failure—and then cult reputation—of Harold and Maude solidified Ashby’s place as a quirky, but talented, director. His work here is obviously eccentric, inventive, and perfect for the material.

Bud Cort is winning in his role as Harold, but it is of course Ruth Gordon who is the heart of the movie. Without her screen presence, charisma, and enthusiasm in the role of Maude, the film would not have worked.

Another element that elevates the film is the soundtrack full of songs by Cat Stevens. Most of the tunes were taken from previously-released albums, but two numbers were composed and recorded specifically for the movie.

Harold and Maude has appeared several times in home media, including a now out of print Criterion Collection edition. A more affordable new release from Paramount Presents is the item on display here, and the remaster from film transfer looks quite good. It comes with an entertaining audio commentary by Larry Karaszewski and Cameron Crowe. The only supplements, though, is a short interview with Yusuf/Cat Stevens and a couple of theatrical trailers.

For fans of Hal Ashby, Ruth Gordon, Cat Stevens, and those free-wheeling early cult films of 1970s Hollywood, Harold and Maude is for you.

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